Thursday, 28 June 2018

YEKHIEL-MEYER POZNER (MEYER POSNER)

He was born in Plotsk (Płock),
Poland.At six years of age, he moved
with his parents to Lodz, where he studied with the local rabbi.At fifteen he immigrated with his parents to
London, where he studied music with a private teacher.At eighteen he became conductor at one of the
large London synagogues.In 1910 he
composed music to M. Rozenfeld’s “Herbst-bleter” (Autumn leaves) and to the
poems of Avrom Reyzen, Bovshover, Edelshtat, and others.In 1914 he became conductor and director of
the Rothschild Synagogue.In the summer
of 1919 he came to the United States where he became conductor of the choir at
the Workmen’s Circle.In March 1920 he
arranged the first concert of Yiddish folksongs at Carnegie Hall.He later became conductor of the Synagogue
Choral Alliance and professor of music at the Master Institute of United Arts.In 1925 he published in Der tog (The day) in New York a series of articles on Jewish music
and in particular on the cantorial art. In book form: Harmonye, teoretiker un pratisher muzik-lehrer (Harmony,
theoretical and practical music teacher) (New York: Levant, 1924), 148 pp.; and
Elementarer music-lerer, an ophandlung
vegn muzik-teorye far onfanger (Elementary music teacher, a treatment of
music theory for beginners) (New York: Harmonye, 1928), 157 pp.He died suddenly of a heart attack in New
York.